278 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1290 



worker's output for the long and short shifts 

 respectively showed a lower hourly output 

 during the later hours of the long shifts. The 

 investigation ailorded no evidence of a detri- 

 mental effect of night work in comparison 

 with day work. The second report, by Dr. 

 0. S. Myers, F.E.S., gives an account of a 

 remarkable experiment carried out, with the 

 consent of the workers, by Mr. Vincent Job- 

 son, managing director of the Derwent Foun- 

 dry Company, Derby. The first step was to 

 analyze the various jobs in order to arrive at 

 the best method, by the elimination of all 

 superfluous movements. This involved the 

 proper arrangement of the tools and materials, 

 the establishment of standard sets of move- 

 ments for the process, and the training of the 

 men. When the system was not going the 

 number of hours of work was reduced and a 

 special system of payment devised. The result 

 was an enormous increase of output in spite 

 of the reduced hours of work. The increased 

 output, combined with the diminished cost of 

 production, has been beneficial to the firm 

 and largely increased wages of the employees, 

 without causing any increase in fatigue, but 

 rather on the whole, apparently, a decrease. — 

 British Medical Journal. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Mortality Statistics of Insured Wage Earners 

 and Their Families. Experience of the Met- 

 ropolitan Life Insurance Company Indus- 

 trial Department, 1911 to 1916, in the 

 United States and Canada. By Louis I. 

 Dublin, Ph.D., Statistician, with the col- 

 laboration of Edwin W. Kopf and George 

 H. Van Buren. Pp. 397. ISTew York, Met- 

 ropolitan Life Insurance Company. 1919. 

 This volume represents a painstaking and 

 well-planned analysis of the 635,449 deaths 

 which have occurred among the industrial 

 policy holders of the Metropolitan Life In- 

 surance Company in the years 1911 to 1916. 

 Because of its great scope and wealth of 

 detail it is of unique value to all who are 

 interested in public health, as well as to phys- 

 icians in their study of disease. The area 

 covered by the data includes nearly all of the 



states of the United States and the provinces 

 of Canada. This geographic range is much 

 greater than that of the Registration Area of 

 the United States Bureau of the Census. The 

 report presents a study of the mortality of 

 industrial workers and their families. The 

 data are classified according to color, age and 

 sex. They comprise 54,000,000 years of life, 

 ■of which 47,000,000 are white and 6,700,000 

 are black. Thus in addition to a presentation 

 of the mortality experience of industrial work- 

 ers as a whole, we have here a comparative 

 study of the mortality of whites and blacks 

 of the same economic status. Previous sta- 

 tistical comparisons of white and black mortal- 

 ity compared all whites to all blacks, ignoring 

 their different social status, and the resultant 

 effect of this on disease. 



The mortality classification is that of the 

 "International List of Causes of Death." 

 This, while admitting of many imperfections, 

 had to be used in order to render the statistics 

 comparable with those of the Registration 

 Area of the United States Census. The occu- 

 pational classification follows the " Classified 

 Index to Occupations." U. S. Bureau of the 

 Census, 1910. The material was very care- 

 fully compiled, especial attention being given 

 to the avoidance of clerical errors. The 

 diagnoses of death, whenever they were doubt- 

 ful, were controlled by follow-up letters to the 

 physicians who had certified to the death. 

 This resulted is a greatly increased accuracy 

 of the statistics. 



Some of the more important results of this 

 study are worthy of mention. Among whites 

 the mortality of males is much greater than 

 that of females. Among negroes the male 

 mortality is less than the female below the age 

 of 25, with the exception of children from 1 

 to 4 years of age. After the twenty-fifth year 

 the male mortality exceeds the female mortal- 

 ity, but the excess is moderate compared to 

 that found in whites. Following the presenta- 

 tion of these general considerations, the au- 

 thors proceed to a detailed analysis of the 

 principal causes of death, giving the rates for 

 the two races in the different age groups and 

 sexes, as well as a comparison of the Metro- 



